General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed: "We should continue to play the supporting role of exports in the economy" and "accelerate the construction of a trade power".
The "Decision" of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed, "Deepening the reform of the foreign trade system. Strengthen the coordination between trade policy and fiscal, taxation, finance and industrial policies, build a system support and policy support system for trade powers, accelerate the reform of domestic and foreign trade integration, and actively respond to the trend of digital and green trade. " Politburo meeting of the Chinese Communist Party, held at the end of July, pointed out that it is necessary to actively cultivate new kinetic energy for foreign trade development and expand intermediate trade and green trade.
Since the beginning of this year, China has made great efforts to promote the stable scale and excellent structure of foreign trade and implemented a series of policies and measures to promote trade and help enterprises. Under the situation of increasing difficulties and challenges at home and abroad, China’s foreign trade has made steady progress, and the trade in goods has shown strong resilience and market vitality, showing the characteristics of increasing quantity, high quality and stable share. In the first seven months, China’s import and export of goods increased by 6.2% year-on-year, and the import and export scale reached a record high in the same period.
Customs declaration is a form for enterprises to declare import and export information to the customs when they go through customs, and it is also a "barometer" for observing the vitality of foreign trade. The customs declarations bear witness to China’s unremitting efforts to improve the quality and efficiency of foreign trade, and record the development track of foreign trade system reform. Recently, reporters came to Jiangsu, Shandong, Guangdong, Xinjiang and other places to explore the new momentum and advantages of China’s foreign trade development through customs declarations.
Looking at the industrial base from the customs declaration form-
A ship sailed out of a new competitive advantage.
In early August, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, a special customs declaration attracted the attention of Nantong Customs:
What’s so special about the export declaration of a brand-new car ro-ro ship "Lino Aurora"?
The world’s largest environment-friendly car ro-ro ship has a cargo capacity of 9100 cars and a total tonnage of 84074 tons. It is the first batch of clean ships that can run on ammonia fuel, and has obtained the classification symbols of "ammonia fuel ready" and "methanol fuel ready" by Norwegian Classification Society. It is expected to switch to ammonia fuel in 2027 to achieve zero net emission.
The construction speed is record. "This ship was ordered by the Norwegian Lino Shipping Company. It took less than four years from the initial construction idea to the delivery and commercial operation, and the construction time was less than one and a half years. This record speed proves our efforts and breakthroughs in the field of high-end shipbuilding. " Shi Liechao, customs manager of China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. introduced.
"In addition to the’ Linuo Aurora’, five other ships of the same class have started construction, and the No.2 ship has also ushered in the sea trial, and more orders will be put into production one after another." Shi Liechao introduced, "As of early August, the total export value of China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. was about 1.6 billion US dollars, an increase of 213.7% over the same period last year."
From Nantong Haimen Yangtze River Wharf to Southampton Port, England, the green journey of "Linuo Aurora" is a vivid example that China manufacturing is constantly moving towards the high end of the global industrial chain value chain.
According to the statistics of Nanjing Customs, in the first seven months of this year, the total value of ships exported by Jiangsu Province was 56.07 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 59.8%. "At present, the shipbuilding industry has entered a new round of cyclical growth, the market demand has grown rapidly, and the order volume of Chinese shipbuilding enterprises has remained at a high level. Especially in terms of green development, China’s shipbuilding technology has achieved certain leading advantages in green ship building, supporting greening and special emission reduction technologies. " Mao Yajun, deputy director of Nanjing Customs, said that the survey results of the shipyard of Yangtze River Shipbuilding, New Era Shipbuilding and China Merchants Jinling Shipbuilding showed that the orders in hand had been scheduled for 2028.
In the first half of the year, the three major indexes of China shipbuilding industry, namely, shipbuilding completion, new orders received and hand-held orders, continued to grow steadily, leading the world, accounting for 55%, 74.7% and 58.9% of the world market share respectively, and accelerated their development towards high-end, intelligent and green. In the first half of the year, the international share of orders for new green power ships in China reached 71.7%.
Just like China’s shipbuilding industry, in the sea of Wang Yang in the world market, China enterprises are brave in difficulties, constantly improving their independent research and development capabilities, and promoting digital, intelligent and green transformation, which are forming the innovative advantages of China manufacturing. In the first seven months of this year, China exported 8.41 trillion yuan of mechanical and electrical products, an increase of 8.3%, accounting for 59% of China’s total export value.
In line with the new trend of global green development, China has reached the Framework Initiative for International Economic and Trade Cooperation on Digital Economy and Green Development with 39 countries, and new energy vehicles have been exported to more than 170 countries and regions. According to the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce, in the future, special policies for green trade development will be studied and introduced, and a green trade support and guarantee system will be gradually established and improved to enhance the green and low-carbon development capability of foreign trade enterprises.
Digital empowerment from the perspective of customs declaration-
A net opens a new path to the sea
From 9610 (direct mail export) and 1210 (bonded e-commerce export) to 9710 (cross-border e-commerce B2B direct export) and 9810 (cross-border e-commerce export overseas warehouse), since 2014, the number of customs supervision mode codes on customs declarations has increased one after another, which confirms the vigorous development of new foreign trade formats and new modes such as cross-border e-commerce. With the help of the Internet, more high-quality goods from China have gone to the world.
Not long ago, the reporter came to Jining, Shandong Province, which is the industrial gathering place of construction machinery.
"The machinery factories on Kaixuan Road in front of the door basically do cross-border e-commerce export business through Ali International Station." Han Guangfei, general manager of Jining Sao Machinery Co., Ltd. introduced that since 2021, with the help of cross-border e-commerce, Sao’s foreign trade orders have grown rapidly. In the first half of this year, Sao’s order transaction volume at Ali International Station increased by more than 50% year-on-year, and the next step is to build overseas warehouses in Central Asian countries.
From offline exhibitions to online e-commerce platforms to seek business opportunities, traditional foreign trade B2B (business-to-business) business has been accelerated online, and industrial belts have flooded into cross-border e-commerce platforms to open up new paths to the sea. Since April, the number of merchants newly settled in Ali International Station in Jining has increased by 76.2% year-on-year.
Why is there this trend? Guo Zhengkui, head of the Jining area of Ali International Station, said that there are two reasons: First, the demand in the international market is growing, and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and other regions are in the tide of infrastructure construction, and there is a huge demand for construction machinery and equipment in China; In the European and American markets, China machinery with excellent quality and complete functions can meet the needs of diversified application scenarios. Second, the technological innovation and application of cross-border e-commerce platform make online development more direct and efficient.
Previously, by introducing AI technology, Ali International Station helped merchants to quickly generate product pictures, introduce copywriting and video content, and accelerate the online process of products. In July this year, Ali International Station released an AI foreign trade product upgrade plan, and launched a minimalist product release function, which shortened the product release time from 60 minutes to 60 seconds at the earliest. At the same time, the AI automatic reception function realized zero-time all-weather response, greatly improving the customer response rate.
Liu Mingtao, general manager of Shandong Hengwang Group, has a personal experience: "Although I don’t understand platform operation, I will actively try out new products and tools launched by e-commerce platforms, such as AI business assistants, which can help us reduce costs and improve efficiency."
At present, 30,000 small and medium-sized enterprises around the world have ordered to use the AI tools of Ali International Station for foreign trade, and the overseas exposure of products optimized by AI has increased by 37%.
According to the "White Paper on the Development Trend of Cross-border E-commerce in China in 2024" released by Amazon in August, the number of China sellers whose sales in Amazon exceeded US$ 1 million increased by nearly 55% in the past two years. China’s export cross-border e-commerce industry is booming, and benchmark enterprises and brands are constantly emerging, which is a solid foundation and strong kinetic energy for China’s foreign trade to move towards a new stage of high-quality going out to sea.
This year, the Ministry of Commerce and other nine departments jointly issued the Opinions on Expanding Cross-border E-commerce Exports and Promoting the Construction of Overseas Warehouses. Cross-border e-commerce has become an important force to promote the development of foreign trade by using new technologies and adapting to new needs.
Li Xinggan, director of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in the first half of the year, the growth rate of China’s cross-border e-commerce import and export reached 10.5%, which was 4.4 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of foreign trade. In the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will continue to adhere to the principle of encouraging innovation, inclusiveness and prudence, implement special policies for cross-border e-commerce, support the development of cross-border e-commerce empowerment industrial belts, and guide local governments to cultivate a number of development benchmarks.
Looking at the opening pattern from the customs declaration form-
A car opens up new international markets.
"Do you know what China products are most popular in Central Asian countries now?"
"It’s a car."
At 12 o’clock in the middle of the night, the Khorgos port in Xinjiang was brightly lit and the traffic was rolling. The customs declarations for exporting cars to Central Asian countries were released one after another after checking that the manifests were consistent. "In order to meet the blowout export demand, we have set up a’ special window’ for the declaration of commercial vehicles, providing 7×24-hour customs clearance services, with a maximum export of more than 1,000 vehicles per day." Li Nong, head of the first section of customs supervision in Horgos, introduced.
Located in the center of Asia-Europe economic plate, Horgos Port is a golden channel for China to open to the west. With the deepening of the "One Belt, One Road" project with high quality, the cooperation between China and Central Asian countries has become increasingly close, and the customs declaration volume at Horgos Port has been increasing. In 2023, Horgos Port exported 304,000 commercial vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 307.5%, making it the largest land port for automobile export in China. In the first seven months of this year, Horgos Port exported 187,000 commercial vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 39.9%.
Liang Hao, manager of Horgos Haocheng International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd., joined the foreign trade company in 2020. In a few years, the scale of his company has been expanding, and the business types have expanded from freight forwarding to international transportation and vehicle sales, and the overall benefits have continued to improve.
"We are very optimistic about the export prospects of domestic cars. It is estimated that our company will export more than 15,000 vehicles and sell more than 1,000 vehicles this year. " Liang Hao said that, on the one hand, domestic cars are favored by more and more consumers in Central Asia and Europe because of their excellent design and high quality. On the other hand, the "Shuangxi Highway" (western China-western Europe) runs through the whole line and goes directly to Europe. The road and railway transportation networks are more perfect and the automobile export channels are smoother.
Interviewed at major ports in Xinjiang, a three-dimensional traffic network map can be seen everywhere: from Zhejiang and Jiangsu in the east, through Chongqing and Shaanxi, to Horgos and Alashankou in Xinjiang in the west, and then through Kazakhstan, connecting five Central Asian countries and European countries, etc., and the trade is unimpeded.
According to the relevant person in charge of Urumqi Customs, in recent years, China has optimized its internal opening-up layout, and the comprehensive opening-up pattern of land and sea linkage and two-way mutual assistance between the East and the West has been accelerated. At the same time, deepen multilateral, bilateral and regional economic cooperation, negotiate and sign high-standard free trade agreements with more countries and regions, promote the high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road", and expand the circle of foreign trade friends.
In March 2011, the first China-Europe train was sent from Chongqing and left for Duisburg, Germany via Alashankou railway port, which opened the prelude to the development of China-Europe trains. As of mid-August this year, the number of China-Europe trains under the supervision of Alashankou Customs has exceeded 40,000.
Zhang Zhaohui, deputy section chief of the Customs Inspection Section I of Alashankou, said that with the continuous increase in the number of trains passing through China and Europe and the continuous expansion of the operation coverage, there are currently 122 trains passing through the Alashankou railway port, carrying more than 200 kinds of goods including automobiles, accessories and electronic products.
The "Belt and Road" initiative to build a country has become an important trading partner. In the first seven months, China’s total import and export to countries that jointly built the "Belt and Road" was 11.72 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.1%. China has established trade smooth working groups with 24 countries jointly built by the Belt and Road Initiative, and signed 15 free trade agreements with the countries jointly built by the Belt and Road Initiative. At the first six successful China International Import Expo(CIIE), more than 7,000 enterprises from the countries jointly built by the Belt and Road Initiative participated in the meeting.
Looking at the reform efficiency from the customs declaration form—
"One Port Connect" Run Out of the New Speed of Customs Clearance
Two to one, less is not just a document.
In front of the gate of Beijiao Port in Foshan, Guangdong Province, container trucks entered and exited in an orderly manner. "There are an average of 600 to 700 containers per day, mainly household appliances such as air conditioners. The products are delivered as soon as they are off the production line." Zhang Zhuoliang, customs manager of Foshan Midea Customs Declaration Co., Ltd., said that after adopting the "one-port connection" model, only one customs declaration form needs to be filled out, and the goods can be sent to Beijiao Port and sent to Nansha Port in Guangzhou, and quickly loaded on international freighters.
Behind the "one port" is the reform and innovation of customs clearance supervision. On November 5, 2020, Guangzhou Customs innovatively launched the "one port connection" mode, with Nansha Port as the hub port and inland river terminal and railway land port as the feeder ports, forming the operation mode of "two ports are like one port", realizing "one declaration, one inspection and one release" for import and export goods.
The traditional "inland river transit" export needs two documents: customs declaration form and customs transit form, while "one port connection" only needs one customs declaration form. "The most intuitive change is that the overall logistics time has been shortened from 5 to 7 days to 1 to 2 days." Zhang Zhuoliang said that for foreign trade enterprises, the shortening of logistics time will accelerate the turnover of production, research and development, reduce the costs of warehousing, logistics and labor, and naturally enhance the international competitiveness of enterprises.
"The Pearl River Delta is an important base for foreign trade manufacturing, with abundant supply and large export demand, and enterprises are highly sensitive to logistics costs." Juck Zhang, deputy director of the Comprehensive Business Department of Guangdong Branch of the General Administration of Customs, introduced that Guangdong Customs has innovatively launched the "combined port" and "one port connection" modes in Shenzhen and Guangzhou respectively. Nowadays, international hub ports such as Yantian in Shenzhen, Shekou in Guangzhou and Nansha in Guangzhou are "pairwise combined" with Pearl River inland ports such as Dongguan, Zhongshan, Foshan and Zhaoqing, with port information exchange and mutual recognition of customs supervision. Since the implementation of the reform, there have been more than 6,000 enterprises enjoying benefits, and the cost of saving logistics and other related costs for enterprises has exceeded 200 million yuan.
A customs declaration is not only unimpeded in Guangdong, but also realizing mutual recognition between Hong Kong and Macao. Guangdong Branch of the General Administration of Customs, together with the Customs of Hong Kong and Macao, innovatively explored the reform of "one form and two reports", and automatically translated the export data declared by enterprises in Guangdong "single window" to generate the declaration data of imported goods in Hong Kong and Macao, without the need for enterprises to repeatedly enter.
Juck Zhang said that under the mode of "one form and two reports", the required items of road manifest data that Hong Kong enterprises had to manually enter in Hong Kong were reduced from 9 to 0, and the required items of import general trade goods that Macao enterprises entered in Australia were reduced from 24 to 3, greatly reducing the workload of manual entry by enterprises and realizing cross-border data sharing.
Looking at the whole country from Guangdong, the evolution process of a customs declaration runs through it. From paper-based customs declaration to paperless customs clearance, from customs, inspection and quarantine enforcement, two procedures to customs declaration, inspection and release in the new era, the reform has continuously empowered and increased the efficiency of customs supervision and clearance, and the sense of acquisition and security of enterprises has been continuously enhanced.
Enterprises don’t run errands and do business at any time. Nowadays, through the "single window" of international trade, China has accelerated to build a "one-stop, big data, multi-functional, standardized and convenient" cross-border trade comprehensive service platform. At present, the platform has realized the "total-to-total" system docking of more than 30 departments, and built 889 service functions in 24 categories, with more than 8.8 million registered users and 26 million daily business applications.
"Optimizing the port business environment is not the best, only better." Zhao Zenglian, deputy director of the General Administration of Customs, said that in the next step, the General Administration of Customs will further enhance the system integration of reform and innovation, strengthen port facilities and data sharing, and continuously add new kinetic energy to foreign trade development by deepening the two-wheel drive of reform and technology empowerment.(Reporter Luo Shanshan; Wang Xinyu participated in writing)
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